Sujet : Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?
De : 186283 (at) *nospam* ud0s4.net (186282@ud0s4.net)
Groupes : comp.os.linux.miscDate : 07. Dec 2024, 08:33:09
Autres entêtes
Organisation : wokiesux
Message-ID : <o4ucnYo2YLqmZ876nZ2dnZfqn_adnZ2d@earthlink.com>
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Latter 70s they were The Thing.
Needed a 64/128 processor in an 8-bit world, then
bit-slice processors were yer fix.
They were the basics of a CPU - but wired so you
could physically attach them to MORE processors.
All the necessary flags/registers/etc could be
expanded wider and wider.
You could buy 2-bit, 4-bit, slice processors and
physically build something much stronger.
I even remember hearing of them mentioned in some
cheap TV series - some geek with his own R2D2
clone that was WAY too capable for the era.
TODAY ... well ... you can make a 64/128 on like
a 1cm die - really party on a 2cm die.
Bit-slice now - you'd loose far too much in
the interface wiring. Really no longer a
solution - unless maybe you need a 1024/2048
processor :-)
Kinda the same goes for 'Transputers' - parallel
solution using ultra-speed (for the day) serial
links between many processors to coordinate
things between all the chips (they could have
a shared memory area too).
Older tech limitations spawned FIXES ... there
were many. Some were very *clever* - might even
have future apps.
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033-33